It seems like Manto is a name that has been increasingly propelled to the forefront of contemporary debate in the last couple of years. The most notable of which is the upcoming eponymous movie directed by Nandita Das, and starring Nawazuddin. However, after reading this book, I realized there is something so powerful about Manto and his ideas that he has already been dominating a sizeable chunk of our social sphere ever since he started writing the stories he is so notorious for. It’s only that we have noticed it very late.
Toba Tek Singh Aur Anya Kahaniyaan is a brilliant collection of short stories by Saadat Hasan Manto. The nuance in his writing, the intricate caricatures of his characters both psychological and physical, and depth of his themes are a truly mesmerising. Though I fairly liked almost every story in the book, my favorites were Toba Tek Singh, Khol Do and Kali Salwaar. His stories are usually punctuated by a disturbing degree violence and sex, and hence he is not a casual read by any measure. Nor are his stories meant to be read in a single go, because they demand strong empathy from their reader and need time to sink in. What makes his stories particularly poignant and unsettling is not that his themes are gory, but that they are true. It is guilt more than fear than drives the impact that his stories have on its readers. I have never seen truth been laid bare in such a brutal fashion ever before.
The second thing that makes both his stories and life interesting are that their themes are so incredibly prophetic. Debates about what is obscene and what is not, freedom of art and creativity, and the society’s proclivity to take offence at the most minute of things, are some of those that have played over again and again in the national debate every now and then. The most recent example of it being Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar’s harassment over his really well-written book ‘The Adivasi Will Not Dance” on grounds of obscenity.
If you’re planning to read Manto by any chance I would recommend watching this short called ‘In Defence of Freedom’ from the movie I spoke of earlier, where Nawazuddin eloquently summarizes who Manto was and what he stood for. Understanding a writer’s point of view is extremely important in assessing his or her work, and that is more so true for Manto and his writing.
Goodreads Rating: 4/5
INKPOT 